African teams are good, but our major problem is finances. All the people who play in the teams are either students or employed.If for example Kenya were to have camp in South Africa like we did in the Vodacom cup 2 years ago, about 10-15 players have to ask for leave from their employers which is kind of tricky. The students just defer their courses to the next semester whenever camp is called. Apart from that, if the game was proffesional in Africa, it would be easy for people. Right now, most teams just get allowances of about 300 USD after playing, and are not entitled to a medical cover.

From the look of things, this repechege is gonna be tough. It will be best if you know you are a repechege contender to gather as much points as possible, since the highest ranked teams get the advantage to play at home in the first round of the repechege.

Are we sure there will be home advantage at all? Considering it will take place in November I wouldn't be surprised if the repechage tournament is based on Hong Kong's Cup of Nations and played as a round robin format.

Armchair Fan wrote:Are we sure there will be home advantage at all? Considering it will take place in November I wouldn't be surprised if the repechage tournament is based on Hong Kong's Cup of Nations and played as a round robin format.

Im not sure, but that has been the norm, and from past experience, WR is extremely good at maintaining the status quo.

Armchair Fan wrote:Are we sure there will be home advantage at all? Considering it will take place in November I wouldn't be surprised if the repechage tournament is based on Hong Kong's Cup of Nations and played as a round robin format.

Im not sure, but that has been the norm, and from past experience, WR is extremely good at maintaining the status quo.

There never was repechage tournament before. But what Armchair writes makes a lot of sense.

How to grow rugby worldwide?Look at the world ranking in July. Teams ranked 1-10 have to play one team from 11-20 (they don't play in a regular competition) away the next year. 11-20 play 21-30 away and so on. Yes, it really is that simple.

Armchair Fan wrote:Are we sure there will be home advantage at all? Considering it will take place in November I wouldn't be surprised if the repechage tournament is based on Hong Kong's Cup of Nations and played as a round robin format.

Im not sure, but that has been the norm, and from past experience, WR is extremely good at maintaining the status quo.

There never was repechage tournament before. But what Armchair writes makes a lot of sense.

According to the last repechege, Zimbabwe played Russia in Siberia due to Russia having a higher rank, then Uruguay played HongKong in Montevideo.

Armchair Fan wrote:But it wasn't a proper tournament, simply play-off rounds. If the whole repechage tournament takes place in a single month it would be crazy to make teams travel all around the world for four weeks.

I saw a suggestion somwhere that the next repechege will be a round robin of all the four teams with the winner bagging a slot for RWC 2019. I wonder how true that is.

The move to a stand-alone four-team repechage tournament will drive further excitement and interest in the climax of the qualification process and with travel and rest time between matches addressed, it will also further enhance player welfare in this important process.

Neptune wrote:From the look of things, and the way teams are aligning themselves, the teams that will participate in the repechege are already starting to show themselves.Basing on team strengths and the way they are playing in their regional qualifiers, I think we can come to a conclusion that these should be the possible Repechege teams.

This Canadian pessimism is too much. Like I'm not happy with the current state of our domestic game but a country like Uruguay isn't going to beat us in a 2 legged series in 2017. I have worries for 2023 and beyond as the South Americans continue to improve with the aid of Argentina but we have more than enough class in our top side right now to make it to 2019 as Americas 2, if not upsetting the Yanks for Americas 1.

Also I don't know why Neptune has Fiji listed as a Repechage team when they should easily finish as Oceania 1 ahead of Samoa and Tonga.

I would prefer the 5 repecharge teams play in a mini-league. Each team plays 2 games in the June window, in 2018, one home and one away, 2 games in the November window. The winner of the league qualifies for the RWC. This allows the best team to qualify.

Buffalo wrote:This Canadian pessimism is too much. Like I'm not happy with the current state of our domestic game but a country like Uruguay isn't going to beat us in a 2 legged series in 2017. I have worries for 2023 and beyond as the South Americans continue to improve with the aid of Argentina but we have more than enough class in our top side right now to make it to 2019 as Americas 2, if not upsetting the Yanks for Americas 1.

Also I don't know why Neptune has Fiji listed as a Repechage team when they should easily finish as Oceania 1 ahead of Samoa and Tonga.

I wouldn't be so sure. Theres a sports psychology term called "learnt helplessness" and it effects teams deeply. Canada really needs to get some momentum and confidence or else I can see Uruguay winning that series.

The move to a stand-alone four-team repechage tournament will drive further excitement and interest in the climax of the qualification process and with travel and rest time between matches addressed, it will also further enhance player welfare in this important process.

There is no information entailing the repechege system. It is just the usual WR rhetoric.

Buffalo wrote:This Canadian pessimism is too much. Like I'm not happy with the current state of our domestic game but a country like Uruguay isn't going to beat us in a 2 legged series in 2017. I have worries for 2023 and beyond as the South Americans continue to improve with the aid of Argentina but we have more than enough class in our top side right now to make it to 2019 as Americas 2, if not upsetting the Yanks for Americas 1.

Also I don't know why Neptune has Fiji listed as a Repechage team when they should easily finish as Oceania 1 ahead of Samoa and Tonga.

Sorry, my bad From Oceania, I guess we can expect Tonga or the Cookies.

I would prefer the 5 repecharge teams play in a mini-league. Each team plays 2 games in the June window, in 2018, one home and one away, 2 games in the November window. The winner of the league qualifies for the RWC. This allows the best team to qualify.

antlat wrote:I would bet that the repechage tournament will be hosted in the country with the highest ranking.

That would be kind of unfair, since not all teams get equal number of tests. Kenya has NEVER had a test match in the November window. We mostly play in the June window and it's the usual Africa 1A against usual suspects Namibia and Zimbabwe. Only recently is when WR gave us tests against Spain, Portugal, Brazil and HongKong. It was a suprise to everyone. Otherwise, we mainly benefit from the June-July Window.

I would prefer the 5 repecharge teams play in a mini-league. Each team plays 2 games in the June window, in 2018, one home and one away, 2 games in the November window. The winner of the league qualifies for the RWC. This allows the best team to qualify.

That would give an unnecessary advantage to the Europe 2 or Americas 3 team that got to host the other. If not home and away between the two best sides, then neutral site is next best in terms of fairness at least.

I would prefer the 5 repecharge teams play in a mini-league. Each team plays 2 games in the June window, in 2018, one home and one away, 2 games in the November window. The winner of the league qualifies for the RWC. This allows the best team to qualify.